The present invention relates to electric connectors. It notably concerns electric connectors intended to make connections to an electric bus.
The wire bundles of electric machines, land or other vehicles and the most varied equipment are becoming more and more complex. One very revealing example is passenger cars, in which the weight of loaded wiring has increased considerably in recent years. To reverse that trend, a new technology has evolved, that of installing an electric bus, using multiplexed electric signals making it possible to channel a large number of different signals on the same electric line and connecting the different equipment to that electric bus. An electric bus generally comes in the form of a cable with a pair of shielded twisted conductors having an insulation sleeve. Each electric apparatus is connected in parallel on said electric line. The connection sleeve. Each electric apparatus is connected in parallel on said electric line. The connection requires either cutting the electric line and making the electric connection, or using connectors of the type equipping computer cables.
These connectors are rather expensive, for they are designed to connect and disconnect electric cables and, in addition, they generally contain numerous parallel lines. Further, in the case of electrical engineering applications intended to be made in an industrial setting or in the case of applications to motor vehicles, trains or airplanes, the electric line must operate in a very harsh environment, and it is important to make sure not only of good immunity to electric parasites, but it is also necessary to make sure of perfect tightness of the connection.
The object of the present invention is therefore to propose an electric connector which is economical enough to make and which lends itself to simple use, making possible a very quick connection, while ensuring perfect electric conductivity of the lines connected to one another, good mechanical strength of the connection, excellent maintenance of the cables thus connected and good tightness of the electric connection.
The invention proposes a connector for electric wires having an electrically conductive core surrounded by an electrically insulating sleeve, said connector containing an electrically insulating block provided with at least two separate recesses, each intended to receive the nonstripped end of an electric wire that is inserted in said recess, said connector containing at least one electrically conductive coupling having as many terminal parts as electric wires to be connected, each coupling consisting essentially of a strip of electrically conductive material, said strip containing an appreciably flat center core, extended laterally by said terminal parts, said terminal parts also being appreciably flat and arranged generally perpendicular to the center core, said terminal parts being shaped to break said insulating sleeve and then enter in electric contact with said conductive core, when a relative displacement is produced between said end of the electric wire and said terminal part, in a direction generally perpendicular to said end of the electric wire, upon mechanical contact of the terminal part against the insulating sleeve of the wire and across the latter, said coupling connecting at least two wires inserted in at least two recesses.
The description which following presents a nonlimitative application of the invention for the connection of different electric apparatuses to an electric bus. It involves connecting an apparatus to an electric line. It therefore involves connecting the cable coming from the apparatus to the cable constituting the electric bus. For most of the connections to be made, the electric bus crosses the connection, for there are other electric apparatuses above and below the connecting point. This is why connectors are described which make possible the connection of at least three electric cables, each having at least two electric wires, and containing at least two couplings, since there are two parallel electric paths. Each coupling is provided with at least three terminal parts to connect a wire of each of the cables.
The invention will be better understood by consulting the following specification, which illustrates three embodiments of the invention with the attached drawings.